(ru    K^. 


Reprinted  from:Art  in  Americe 

4.ril,1917.     Y.5,  no,3« 
p. 150-155. 


^^^ 


XIVth  Century  French  Tapestry. 

Metropolitan   Museum  of  Art,  New   York. 


XIVth  Century  French  Tapestry. 

The  Germanic  Museum,  Nuremberg. 


THREE    FRAGMENTS    OF    THE    EARLIEST    FRENCH 
TAPESTRY     :    BY  R.  A.  MEYER-RIEFSTAHL 

4MONG  the  most  important  pieces  recently  acquired  by  the 
J~\  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  in  New  York  is  an  early  Gothic 
tapestry  representing  the  Christ  on  the  Cross,  surrounded  by 
Saints,  which  belonged  formerly  to  the  Morgan  and  Hoentschel 
collections.  This  piece  is  very  famous  as  well  for  its  beauty  as 
for  its  historical  importance,  for  it  is  generally  considered  to  be  the 
oldest  French  tapestry  in  existence.  Paul  Vitry  calls  it  more 
archaic  than  the  famous  Escosura  tapestry  of  the  Presentation  in 
the  Temple  now  in  the  Musec  du  Cinquantenaire  in  Brussels,  and 
ascribes  it  to  a  Parisian  workshop.  Jules  Guififrey,  Robert  T.  Nichol 
and  W.  M.  Milliken  take  the  same  standpoint.^  Its  date  is  unani- 
mously assigned  to  about  the  year  1300  A.D.  It  has  been  considered 
to  have  been  an  antependium.  The  Escosura  tapestry  in  Brussels 
of  the  early  XlVth  century  and  the  famous  Apocalypse  in  the  Ca- 
thedral at  Angers,  dating  from  1376,  are  the  only  other  early  French 
tapestries  of  the  XlVth  century. 

We  are  fortunate  enough  to  increase  this  series  by  one  impor- 
tant piece.  It  is  preserved  in  the  Germanic  Museum  in  Nuremberg 
— we  feel  able  to  prove  that  the  Nuremberg  tapestry  comes  certainly 
from  the  same  workshop  as  the  Metropolitan  tapestry  and  is  even  a 
fragment  of  the  same  piece. 

The  Nuremberg  tapestry  is  described  in  the  catalogues  of  the 
Museum  as  follows:^  "No.  loi  (670  in  Hampe's  Catalogue) 
Dorselet,  for  choir  stalls  or  antependium  of  an  altar,  woolen  tapes- 
try, six  saints:  St.  Clara,  St.  John  Baptist,  St.  Agnes,  St.  Elizabeth 
(St.  Dorothea  in  Hampe's  Catalogue),  St.  Peter,  St.  Paul.  On  blue 
ground  covered  with  yellow  stars,  168  cm.  (^=66^  inches)  long, 
76  cm.  (=30  inches)  high,  XlVth  Century  (about  1400  in  Hampe's 
Catalogue)."  This  same  tapestry  is  mentioned  by  Miintz  as  a 
German  tapestry  of  the  XlVth  Century,  but  he  seems  not  to  have 

1  Paul  Vitry,  Les  collections  Pierpont  Morgan,  Gazette  des  Beaux  Arts,  Vol.  IV-XI, 
1914,  p.  434.  Jules  Guififrey,  Les  tapisseries  du  12e  a  la  fin  du  16e  siecle,  p.  8— Robert  T. 
Nichol  in  Guide  to  the  Loan  Exhibition  of  the  J.  Pierpont  Morgan  Collection  at  the 
MetropoHtan  Museum  of  Art,  New  York,  1914,  page  27, — W.  M.  M.  in  Bulletin  of  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  July,   1916. 

2  Katalog  der  im  Germanischen  Museum  befindlichen  Gewebe  und  Stickereien  (by 
Essenwein)  Nuernberg,  1869,  No.  101,  with  lithographic  reproduction;  and  Theodor 
Hampe,  Katalog  der  Gewebesammlung  des  Germanischen  Nationalmuseums,  Niirn- 
berg,  1896,  No.  670  (with  photographic  reproduction).  The  tapestry  has  the  inventory 
number  of  the  Museum  G.  101. 


3G0559 


known  the  piece  itself,  as  he  simply  copies  the  notice  in  Essenwein's 
Catalogue.^  Circumstances  have  not  permitted  an  examination  of 
the  tapestry  itself,  but  even  the  photographic  reproduction  shows 
that  it  has  been  sewed  together  and  consists  of  two  fragments,  each 
with  a  representation  of  three  saints.  Both  groups  of  three  figures 
seem  to  be  facing  towards  a  centre  piece  which,  is  not  there,  and 
this  centre  piece  is  without  doubt  the  tapestry  at  the  Metropolitan 
Museum.  To  establish  this  identity  we  must  first  study  the  meas- 
urements of  both  pieces.  An  absolute  equality  in  the  height  of  both 
tapestries  cannot  be  expected,  as  neither  is  intact,  either  at  the  top  or 
at  the  bottom.  But  the  height  of  30  inches  of  the  Nuremberg 
tapestry  and  of  32  inches  of  the  Metropolitan  tapestry  is  nearly 
similar.  The  halos  on  the  Metropolitan  tapestry  measure  between 
6%  inches  and  7  inches;  the  halos  of  the  Nuremberg  tapestry  are 
about  7  inches  in  diameter.  Both  tapestries  have  a  blue  background 
with  yellow  stars.  The  distribution  of  the  stars  between  the  different 
figures  is  done  in  the  same  way  on  both  pieces.  The  character  of 
these  backgrounds  looks  rather  diflferent  in  the  two  photographs 
which  we  reproduce  here.  The  Nuremberg  photograph  was  made 
about  twenty  years  ago  with  ordinary  plates;  the  Metropolitan  pho- 
tograph was  made  recently  with  orthochromatic  plates,  exaggerat- 
ing somewhat  the  values  of  the  colors.  Certain  details  are  abso- 
lutely identical  on  both  tapestries,  as,  for  instance,  the  lining  of  the 
garment  of  the  figure  in  the  right  corner  of  the  Metropolitan 
tapestry  (St.  Margaret  of  Antioch)  and  that  of  the  fourth  figure 
from  the  left  in  the  Nuremberg  tapestry  (St.  Dorothea  or  St.  Eliza- 
beth). To  judge  from  the  reproduction  the  texture  seems  to  be  of 
the  same  quality  in  both  weaves. 

More  important  than  the  identity  of  measurement  and  of  little 
details  is  the  general  character  of  the  composition :  the  fine  rhythm 
'of  the  lines  of  the  drapery,  the  expression,  and  the  attitude  of  the 
saints,  the  way  they  move  their  arms  and  hold  their  different  sym- 
bols is  absolutely  identical  in  both  tapestries,  while  we  find  certain 
figures  draped  in  white  robes,  others  clad  in  colored  garments  in 
which  the  modeling  is  obtained  by  primitive  hatchings  which  show 
that  we  are  here  at  the  beginning  of  a  technical  evolution. 

We  are  for  the  moment  only  able  to  give  the  list  of  the  colors 

1  Miintz,  Histoire  generale  de  la  Tapisserie.     Tapisseries  allemandes,  page  5. 


^ 


employed  in  the  Metropolitan  tapestry.  Thirteen  colors  are  found: 
white,  light  cream,  yellow,  light  brown  (for  the  hair),  another  brown 
which  seems  to  be  a  faded  mauve,  light  red,  dark  red,  light  green, 
medium  green,  dark  green,  light  blue,  medium  blue  and  dark  blue 
(instead  of  black  employed  for  the  dark  outlines).  A  technical 
peculiarity  must  be  mentioned  in  the  Metropolitan  tapestry:  the 
faces  are  outlined  with  dark  blue  thread  employed  in  ordinary 
tapestry  technique,  and  these  dark  blue  lines  are  followed  by  a  white 
couched  thread  which  seems  to  have  been  contemporaneously  applied 
by  means  of  the  "flying  bobbin."  The  Metropolitan  tapestry  is  in 
bad  condition  both  at  the  top  and  at  the  bottom,  but  there  are  very 
few  restorations  and  the  remainder  of  the  weave  is  in  good  condition. 
The  number  of  warp  threads  to  the  inch  is  ii  to  12,  and  the  weft 
consists  of  about  32  double  movements  of  the  shuttle  to  the  inch. 
The  height  is  32  inches,  the  length  62^  inches. 

If  we  insert  the  Metropolitan  tapestry  between  the  two  halves 
of  the  Nuremberg  piece  we  obtain  a  composition  of  a  total  length 
of  129  inches,  which  must  have  been  about  35  inches  high.  We  do 
not  know  whether  these  three  fragments  represent  the  whole  length 
of  the  tapestry,  but  it  is  certain  that  a  tapestry  of  this  size  cannot  have 
been  an  antependium;  it  must  have  been  a  dorselet,  for  the  choir 
stalls  of  a  church  or  the  benches  of  some  hall  for  Ecclesiastical  pur- 
poses. It  may  have  been  much  longer,  as  early  textile  work  for 
such  purposes  like  the  famous  Bayeux  embroidery  or  the  Apostle 
tapestry  and  the  Angels'  tapestry  at  Halberstadt,  are  all  of  consider- 
able length.  In  any  case  we  have  the  center  of  the  composition,  the 
Christ  on  the  Cross,  with  the  traditional  Virgin  and  St.  John  on  both 
sides.  Next  to  this  group  we  have  on  each  side  a  group  of  four 
saints  holding  their  attributes.  The  identification  of  the  saints  is  in 
several  cases  not  absolutely  sure,  but  we  have  no  reason  to  doubt  the 
ascriptions  which  have  been  made  by  previous  authors.  On  the  left 
side  of  the  cross  we  have  (starting  from  the  left)  St.  Clara,  St.  John 
Baptist,  St.  Agnes  and  St.  Catherine  of  Alexandria.  To  the  right 
side  of  the  Cross,  behind  St.  John :  St.  Margaret  of  Antioch,  another 
saint  which  may  be  St.  Dorothea  or  St.  Elizabeth,  St.  Peter  and 
St.  Paul. 

We  have  not  been  able  to  find  any  clew  as  to  whether  these 
saints  are  characteristic  for  any  particular  region.  We  hope  to 
receive  information  as  to  the  source  of  the  Nuremberg  tapestry.    But 


even  if  it  was  discovered  in  Germany,  it  seems  certain  that  it  is  of 
French  workmanship.  The  earliest  German  tapestries  in  Halber- 
stadt,  the  rugs  from  Quedlinburg  and  the  earliest  German  embroi- 
deries we  know,  are  of  a  different  character.  Their  youthful  vigor 
contrasts  with  the  refined  subtlety  of  our  tapestry.  Even  some 
Rhenish  and  Westphalian  embroideries  (as  published  in  Lessing's 
Deutsche  Wandteppiche  und  Stickereien)  are  quite  different  in 
style  from  our  piece.  Consequently  there  is  every  reason  to  con- 
sider this  precious  dorselet  as  the  earliest  specimen  existing  of  French 
tapestry. 


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